Kingdom: Legendary War - Episode 7 Ranking and Review
Once again, I did not watch the episode. Just saying, I think I may have goofed up the episode days previously, I think I skipped recapping one episode, the filler one. Anyway this week we get special units, and I love that. Maybe we can finally get some great vocal- oh, the vocal performance will be next week. At least they will cover IU and Taeyeon, so that is great.
Finally, Stray Kids are topping the overall ranking. But that does not matter, public perception does, and I wonder what the public perception of these groups will be at the end of the show. Will we get an Oh My Girl grower?
Since they are split between units, I will do compare-and-contrast.
Rap Units
One (Bobby [iKON], Sunwoo [The Boyz], Hwiyoung [SF9]) - Full Dash
I don't know too much about Sunwoo and Hwiyoung, but Bobby's casual unserious rap style is a great joy. That said, this performance was clearly not live, with a heavy dose of autotune. That said, this trio really gives me 90's hip-hop vibes, and it looked like they were having a blast. Admittedly, I don't think I looked at their faces a lot, Bobby's hair was everywhere. A little less autotune would really save this song from a lot of slack from me.
Mayfly (Minhyuk [Btob], Hongjoong [ATEEZ], Bang Chan [Stray Kids], Changbin [Stray Kids], Han [Stray Kids]) - Colours
A mile or two better than the One performance, Colours is written by the ridiculously talented 3Racha team from Stray Kids. The autotune once again is damning, but the fresh lyrics are great. It helps that Bang Chan is from Australia, as his English lines alone are better than nearly all K-Pop English, and frankly, better than most ABC English lyrics. This is a good bit of social commentary, with an effective message without ever feeling preachy. "We all bleed the same colour" is my personal favorite line, but the 'U' in 'Colour' moment was great too. I wish there was a little more dynamism in the performance, though. With such a vibrant blend of performers, I felt that they should play off each other more. In that subject, Felix would have been great here, as he could counter Hongjoong excellently.
Personal Winner: Mayfly (The judges agree)
Performance Units
One (Juyeon [The Boyz], Taeyang [SF9], DK [iKON]) - King and Queen
So apparently, this is based on a famous Korean king who went mad. I have not watched the episode, but I make a guess that this is Yeonsangun of Joseon, or it could be the later Prince Sado, also of Joseon (Note: ReMarie explained the performance well in a comment, check it out for a much better understanding). On to the performance, the staging and sets were excellently designed, and the performers were really, really charismatic. To tell a story through dance, you need to get into the story, and it is clear all three did that. That said, I wish the choreographer made the dance a little more fluid, as it was a little too rough. Some looser movement would really encompass the madness and chaos of the tale.
Mayfly (Wooyoung [ATEEZ], Yunho [ATEEZ], San [ATEEZ], Yeosang [ATEEZ], Felix [Stray Kids], Lee Know [Stray Kids], Peniel [BtoB]) - Wolf (EXO)
The only pre-existing song covered this round, Wolf is one of K-Pop's most divisive songs ever, loved by some, and hated by others. To me, I love its chaos and weirdness. This Mayfly unit basically is half of ATEEZ, a bit of Stray Kids, and Peniel. And suddenly I realize that Felix would have been great in the rap Mayfly unit. This performance was a lot less ambitious than the One performance, but it succeeds in its aim a lot more. The best parts of the performance were when the members played off each other's strengths. In a way, most members of Mayfly are weaker dancers than One's, but they play off each other much better.
Of course, they also had San. It is a long-running joke amongst ATEEZ fans that San is possessed, and honestly, San lives up to that. His hyperactive dancing is loose and fluid, while at the same time dark and mad. Early on in the performance, he clearly was channeling Kai, but he eventually let his more 'Wolf'-like side show throughout.
Personal Winner: Mayfly
Overall Ranking:
4. One - Full Dash
3. Mayfly - Colours
2. One - King and Queen
1. Mayfly - Wolf
Next time we will get Love Poem and Spark covered, and I am a bit worried. These groups can sing extremely well. But can they provide the emotion that IU or Taeyeon brought to the song? I hope so.
Ay, our rating is really similar I'm glad. ☆ Wolf performance was ridiculously entertaining and I love the Felix-Wooyoung moments, they shined a lot in this one!
ReplyDeleteWorried as well for next ep lol, but let's see!
Hopefully we both are wrong, at it will turn out to be great with some awesome vocal moments... pretty please?
DeleteHi, nice review. I agree with a few things you point out.
ReplyDeleteI just wanna say, It's worth to watch The One dance Unit again, after knowing the story behind their performance.
'' "The stage starts with red lights and powerful atmosphere, which represents King Yeonsan-gun. According to the history, Yeonsan-gun was a king who excelled in politics, study, and was expected to continue the throne. But there was an incident where Yeonsan-gun's mother died."
If you look at the stage, Taeyang danced and burnt a piece of paper with "Queen Yeonsan-gun's mother" written on it, while a woman wearing hanbok dies with a knife behind her.
"In fact, Yeonsan's mother was killed, and after that, Yeonsan started to go crazy."
On the stage, after she died, they started performing to represent Yeonsan feeling. Yoo Taeyang expresses sadness, Juyeon shows entertainment/enjoyment, and Donghyuk shows madness.
"At that time, Yeonsan-gun was trapped in his grief and killed many people with a knife."Yoo Taeyang expresses it with a knife dance, and Juyeon expressing the enjoyment of Yeonsan-gun as a performance of drinking alcohol while turning the table upside down. Lastly, Donghyuk expresses the unstable emotions of Yeonsan-gun by expressing madness with his facial expression. After that, the three turned into maniacs, performing a bit violent, and began to face the end with lyrical songs.
"He begins to feel sad about his mother's death and faces his own death by breaking a glass at the end. At that time, Yeonsan-gun was crazy about drinking."
When he broke the glass on stage, red water flowed out, which can be assumed that Yeonsan-gun died. '' (copied frm reddit)
Ah, thank you for the comment ReMarie!
DeleteAs I had noted in my review, I guessed it was about Yeonsangun, whose story I know. But at the same time, I was not able to make all the correlations between the performance and the history. Now, it makes a bit more sense. I still feel they could have been a little more visual in their performance, but I appreciate several scenes a lot more now. While I am not sure it crossed Mayfly's Wolf, it is certainly a lot closer now.
Thank you!